On the Brink
by inkytears
Summary: Remus attempts to give Sirius a bit of much needed tutoring.


"Eye of a _bat_, Sirius. Really, implying that a toad's eye would be of any use is a bit ridiculous. You're what, seventeen?"

Remus gave a light sigh as he fell back against the warm, home-knit blanket that lay sprawled across his bed, clumsily lifting one slim leg off the mattress so that he could kick his shoes onto the ground one by one.

It was nights like tonight when the wind was a blessing—cutting through the hot night air that fell about Hogwarts in a haze. Even in the boy's dormitory all the way up in Gryffindor Tower, it was muggy and thick, so it came as no surprise that when a cool breeze trickled in through the arch of a window, the boy who's ideas were thought of to be 'a bit ridiculous'—Sirius Black—practically tore off his sweater, leaving him only in a dress shirt, and leaned back in the rich brown chair of slightly cracked leather, a mere three or four feet from Remus's bed.

"_You're_ a bit ridiculous, Moony," he sighed, idly tugging at a lock of his own hair in annoyance, "Really, there's a reason you haven't got a girlfriend, you know. And it's got less to do with the fact that you sort of resemble a frightened deer leaping in front of a carriage a good bit of the time. Even more than James, I'd say, which—" Sirius paused to glance down at his lap, tossing the scroll of parchment that sat there from one hand to the next, "—Is ironic if you give it a good, long thought. And _more_ to do with that pile of papers at the end of your bed. Don't bother correcting me if I'm wrong, but I'd bet my left arse cheek that it covers at least half your assignments for the next three months."

The boy on the bed blushed, his body tensing as he rolled to his side and gave Sirius the best impression of a glare he could muster. "Who says I _want_ a girlfriend?" he asked, "I've got more important things to do than snog behind cupboards anyway. And besides," Remus grimaced, grabbing a pillow off the bed and launching it at Sirius, which his friend caught easily. "I don't want to hear another word about your 'arse cheek'. I'd have no use for it anyway, so the point, I'm afraid, is a bit moot."

With a loud, boisterous chuckle and a rather forceful pillow thrown back at Remus (that of which hit him square in the face), Sirius shook his head.

"Everyone," he began, "Wants someone to snog, Moony. _Everyone_. Even you, with your love of piss-poor education and obnoxiously large vocabulary, would jump at the chance to get your prick out of the middle of some book and put it to good use if given the opportunity."

Remus rolled his eyes. "You know, love, not everyone's half as horny as you seem to be."

"Love?" Sirius blinked, then brook into a huge grin that took his features by storm and caused his entire face to light up just a tad bit less bright than the stars that hung outside their window. "Remus Lupin, why, I _never_!"

After making quite the humorous (and notably disgusted) face, Remus shook his head for what felt like the twentieth time since their two man tutoring session had begun. "Stop being a prick," he mumbled.

"I'll stop _being _a prick when you start _using _yours," Sirius bargained.

Remus merely closed his friend's potion book and settled back more comfortably against the mountain of pillows that sat on his bed. In an attempt to change the subject entirely, he said, "James should be coming up soon."

"You fancy using your prick on _James_?" Sirius stuck out his tongue in disgust as he pretended to gag, then shook his head in disbelief, "Moony, really, not that our mutual friend isn't notably dashing—but in the event that you decided to join the Pygmy Puffs rather than staying over here with me and James in Thestral Village, I always assumed I'd be your first choice. Honestly, I can't say that I'm not a bit insul—"

Sirius was immediately silenced by a spell that he hadn't even heard Remus utter, but knew had occurred because suddenly it felt as though an invisible rope had been bound across his mouth.

Remus, on the other hand, was sitting pretty on his bed, ignoring the angry cries coming from his friend as he flipped past another page of his book on the history of Russian wizards; a bit of pleasure reading. "You deserved it," he sighed as he finally glanced in Sirius's direction. "Five minute time-out period. Then, assuming you can behave yourself, I won't 'accidentally' suffocate you in your sleep."

Sirius groaned and leaned back against the chair, arms crossed in annoyance as he muttered something against the spell that sounded a bit like 'I'm hotter'.

"You keep telling yourself that, Pads," Remus grinned, "Though I'm sure James would disagree."

He didn't lift the spell for a good twenty or thirty minutes despite his promises. Watching his friend squirm, Remus decided, was simply too much fun.

~.~.~.~.~

Oddly enough, as night fell, leaving James snoring and drooling and cuddling his pillow (all at the same time), and Sirius muttering something about how he desperately needed new friends who'd refrain from using physical and emotional abuse just to make their point, a strange thought crossed Remus's mind.

_I suppose he really is hotter, isn't he_? The boy mused in silence as he stared at the stone wall.

Remus didn't sleep much that night, and what little dreams he _did_ managed…

Well, they were much too full of a certain dark-haired friend of his to be anything other than unsettling.


End file.
